A couple of days after Job's untimely death, Charlie Rose ran an interview he did with him in October of 1996. Jobs said everything he'd been involved in (at the time of the interview, it was Pixar) was "a team sport. You can't do it on your own."

Praised around the world as an iconic, unique genius in multiple fields of endeavour, Jobs understood his accomplishments depended on teamwork at every stage of the enterprise - generating and testing pioneering ideas, working out the practicalities of bringing them to realization, building business models that would create returns, and attracting customers who's lives would be transformed through their use of the products.

I've seen lots of head shots and individual photos of Steve Jobs in the last few days. I had to dig for this picture of the early Apple team. I think it captures more of the genius of Jobs than any of the images that feature him on his own.

The creativity that vibrated around Jobs flowed through conversations within and among teams. One conversation after another, these teams co-created a new future that changed the way we communicate with each other.

Click on image to play.

This clip from Jobs commencement address at Stanford in 2005 (over 11 million views on YouTube in the last three years) has been played endlessly these last few days. These words especially are worth repeating and remembering:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs composed his uniquely significant life surrounded by teams. He inspired them, he created space for their members to contribute their best, he supported them, and he appreciated them. They were essential to who he became and what he accomplished.

The same is true for you.

Cheers,

Brian

The Jazz Quote of the Month

This is another wonderful bit of verbal composing brought to my attention by Vancouver bassist Jodi Proznick. It's from Jane Siberry's blog in The Huffington Post on Oct 29, 2011.

If you ask someone if they like music, they look at you strangely. It seems to be a universal given. Like asking someone if they like breathing. It is like breathing. Or air, rather. Flowing without and within. A matrix within which our lives are set. The setting for the tableware of our beings. OK. I'll stop.

But can you imagine a world with no music? How quiet it would be? How hard it would be to celebrate? How difficult to fight gravity? How impossible to dance?

Music is gathering. Taking our scattered thoughts and senses and coalescing us back into our core.

Music is powerful. The first few chords can change us where no self-help books can.

I'm particularly struck by the idea of music as gathering. It has that effect both internally, as Siberry suggests, but also externally, as we gather others into community with us. That's what jazz musicians at their best do - they gather musicians and an audience into a powerful community that nourishes the core of being.

That happens for most of us through the music of our conversations. Are your conversations musical in the sense that Siberry is suggesting here? Do they gather people into a community that brings them back to their core, both individually and collectively?

You have the potential to do that. You have the voice, you can generate the vibes, and you can create value so your community flourishes at its core. It takes practice, persistence, and intention. But the ROC - return on conversation - is remarkable.

A Picture is Worth...

Support Live Jazz in Vancouver

Join us at The Cellar for Cory Weeds' latest CD launch - Just Like That with Cory on sax, Tilden Webb on piano, Jodi Proznick on bass, and Jesse Cahill on drums - on Nov 11 and 12.